Gaming as a corporate enterprise is relatively new in comparison to most other industries. Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, and in the first decades, casinos were small by today's standards. They were normally owned by one or two people or a...

Volume Two in this series contains sixteen interviews of members of the University of Nevada, Reno community, in a joint project conducted by the Oral History Program and University Archives. Those interviewed were: Robert E. McDonough, president,...

Andrew D. Crofut is a Nevadan in the true sense. What does this mean? Crofut was born in 1889 and grew up on a ranch in Diamond Valley at the juncture of Eureka and Elko counties. The ranch provides the focus for a major portion of this memoir. The...

Casino gambling (or “gaming,” as the industry prefers) was made legal in Nevada by an act of the state legislature in 1931. Early casinos in Nevada were rough-and-tumble businesses still deeply rooted in the frontier ethos from which gaming had...

Photograph of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg sitting on the track of a railroad with cameras; Title taken from photograph; Caption on image: "Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg sitting at a railroad track, with cameras;" Photographic print

John Sanford, a native of Reno, was born in 1906. He received his education in the Reno public schools and at the University of Nevada. His first—and only—career began while he was still in his teens. He became a newspaperman, to follow the...

Between 1849 and 1876 the population of Chinese immigrants coming to the U.S. swelled to 151,000. Beset by war and famine at home, the Chinese were attracted to the promise of gold in the Western United States. Called - coolies, - the Chinese...

Robbins E. Cahill’s career of service to the state of Nevada has been long and distinguished. He has spent nearly his whole life in Nevada as student, businessman, politician, worker for state and local agencies, lobbyist, and civic leader. Born in...

John Francis Cahlan is a native of Nevada, born in Reno in 1902. He had a long career as a newspaperman and followed an avocation in politics, serving as a regent of the University of Nevada, a legislative lobbyist, and as an instigator of the...

Charles D. Gallagher, born in 1884, is a native of White Pine County. His father, W. C. Gallagher, established a ranch there early in the state's history. The homestead, in the Duck Creek Valley, came to be known as Gallagher's Gap. Charles...

When the infant Arthur M. Smith, Jr. arrived in Nevada with his parents in 1922, about 75,000 people lived in the state. Eighty percent of Nevada’s population was rural. Mining, ranching, and railroading were the foundations of its economy, and...

World War II was the most violent convulsion in human history. May it forever hold that distinction. Fifty-seven nations were among the belligerents, but the major cost of the conflict was borne by just five Allied and three Axis powers. Combined,...

This volume stems from the creation in 1997 of the Nevada Mining Oral History Project (NMOHP), focusing on Nevada’s second largest industry—gold and silver mining. The sixteen chroniclers included here recorded more than 60 hours of firsthand...

Through interviews with 21 individuals with a wide range of firsthand experiences, this oral history project illuminates the evolution of gaming regulation in Nevada. The elimination of organized crime from the state’s casinos might have happened...